Tech

Space Monkey Brings Peer-to-Peer Storage to the Cloud

A Utah-based company says it wants to change how the world stores data — and the Kickstarter community is taking notice.

Co-founders Alen Peacock and Clint Gordon-Carroll led the creation of Space Monkey, an encrypted peer-to-peer cloud storage network. Space Monkey is cloud storage on your desktop, but it works differently than services we've become accustomed to, like Dropbox or Google Drive.

For a $10 per month subscription, you get 1TB of storage and an included Space Monkey unit. When you you upload a file, the system dices that data up into tiny encrypted pieces and stores that across various Space Monkey units on the Internet (hence, the peer-to-peer factor), as explained in the video above.

Because your data is spread geographically throughout the storage network, Space Monkey could keep your data safer in the face of natural catastrophes that normally might affect large data centers more directly.

In their Kickstarter campaign video, Peacock and Gordon-Carroll argue that the traditional cloud is expensive with the amount of infrastructure required and a number of factors to consider: power, cooling, bandwidth, fire suppression systems, diesel backup generators, expensive networking equipment and network operations center with 24/7 staffing. When they frame it that way, Space Monkey clearly appears like a greener alternative to huge data centers.

I'm personally not too crazy about the idea of storing pieces of my personal files on gadgets in various strangers' basements across the network — even if it's encrypted. For me, a nondescript, traditional data center somehow still gives me better peace of mind. But I'm clearly in the minority: With 21 days left to go, the company's Kickstarter campaign had already far surpassed its $100K goal, reaching more than $250,000 as of Friday afternoon.

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